Motcomb (sic) Primitive Methodist chapel was opened on Thursday 25th December 1828. Preachers at the opening were Sister Ruth Watkins and William Paddison, who described the opening in the Primitive Methodist magazine.
The new chapel had a front gallery 3 pews deep and measured 20′(w) x 28′(l). Mr J Smith gave the land and there was a great deal of volunteer help with the chapel’s erection.
Motcombe became the head of a circuit. By 1838 it had four hundred and forty members and rising. “The converting work is moving on, and our societies are doing well; and we have an increase of religion and members.
The return from Motcombe Primitive Methodist chapel to the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship shows us that the place was thriving with afternoon and evening congregations of well over 100 and morning and afternoon Sunday schools. The return was completed by the minister, William Driffield.
On the Ordnance Survey map of 1887 Providence chapel is shown on the east side of The Street north of its junction with Motcombe Road. It is still there in 1929 but has disappeared by 1980.
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine 1829 page 278
Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1838. Pages 421-424
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I have wanted to track this one down for ages and have at last succeeded. Fortunately I looked at the old OS map before leaving home – the chapel was on the west of The Street not the east. We drove the whole length from south to north and found no chapel except the Wesleyan which is still in use. On the way back down, I saw a local resident near where I thought the chapel should have been and she set me right!! It is now a house called Brookside. I have submitted photos separately.
This is from the DHC catalogue online ‘There were two Chapels in Motcombe. The Primitive church was built in 1828 and the Wesleyan in 1870. In the 1930s the two churches united and it appears that the Primitive church was sold.’
Probably the Wesleyans had a chapel before the Primitives, as the Motcombe village website reports ‘On 1st June 1870 the foundation stone of the present Motcombe Methodist chapel was laid. It was built to replace the first chapel which had been erected in 1775 and was said to have been the first in a Dorset village’.
There is another entry in the 1851 Religious Census which is a bit puzzling
Place of worship: None.
Parish or place: Motcombe.
Date erected, consecrated or licensed: 1827.
Religious denomination: Primitive Methodist.
Informant: George Waite, Minister.
Estimated attendance on Sunday 30 March 1851: morning 80, afternoon 81, evening 91.
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